A SINGLE SPY

1. Intelligence in Public Media
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All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this article are those of the author. Nothing in the article should be con-
strued as asserting or implying US government endorsement of its factual statements and interpretations.
“A single spy in the right place and at the right mo-
ment may change the course of history,” says a Soviet
spy master midway through A Single Spy, and who are we
to argue? William Christie’s espionage thriller revolves
around this observation, using historical events to provide
a foundation for his story as well as for the larger points
he wants to make. Whether he succeeds or not depends on
how the reader chooses to approach the book.
A Single Spy is the story of a young Soviet, Aleksi
Smirnov. Left alone in the rural upheavals of collectiv-
ization and dumped into a Soviet state orphanage, he
escapes and lives by his wits until caught by the NKVD
in 1936. Given the choice of signing up to train as a spy
or be executed, Aleksi agrees to work for Soviet intelli-
gence. As soon as his training is finished, he is dispatched
to Nazi Germany, taking on the identity of a dead ethnic
German boy he had known on his collective farm (and
whose family had taught Aleksi German). Living with the
boy’s uncle, a well-connected diplomat, Aleksi eventually
becomes an officer in the German army and is picked up
by the Abwehr.
From there the plot rolls on, becoming ever more
improbable. Aleksi uncovers the plans for the German in-
vasion of Russia and warns Moscow months in advance,
only to be told to stop reporting British provocations.
Disgusted, he takes an Abwehr assignment to Iran, which
ends with a narrow escape and return to Berlin. With
Germany’s fortunes in decline, Aleksi then takes on an
assignment from the Gestapo to return to Tehran and . . .
well, no sense spoiling the fun.
If nothing else, Christie has mastered the craft of giv-
ing modern-day thriller readers what they want. Chapters
average about six pages, which keeps the story moving
and does not burden the reader with character develop-
ment or convincing atmospherics. Violence comes along
at regular intervals to keep things lively, as does some
laughably bad sex. Historical characters—Admiral Canar-
is, Walter Schellenberg—have cameos, to lend an air of
verisimilitude, though they sound more like the cardboard
Nazis of 1960s television shows than anything else.a
This
is hardly great literature, and Robert Harris and Philip
Kerr both do much better with genuine Nazis, but A Sin-
gle Spy is perfectly acceptable vacation entertainment.
Christie would have done well to be content with
writing a fast-paced spy novel. At some point, however,
he decided to use his story to make a statement about the
nature of the Nazi and Soviet regimes—that both, staffed
by opportunistic thugs, existed solely to crush the people
they ruled and, therefore, that there was little difference
between them. Christie is absolutely right about this, as
anyone with a passing familiarity with 20th
century history
will know, but in his telling, the point seems a bit flat.
Two reasons account for this. First, Christie simply is
not steeped enough in Aleksi’s world to give a convincing
portrait of what his character had to endure. His research
is enough for a light thriller, but is not up to the task of
recreating the grim world of Stalin’s Soviet Union or
Hitler’s Germany. Second, Christie just isn’t that strong
a prose stylist. His writing is admirably concise and
direct—the better to keep the tale moving—but at the cost
of omitting the details that give the reader a sense that he
is immersed in another world. Christie’s ambitions call
for the experiences of an Arthur Koestler or the writing of
an Eric Ambler, but he just isn’t up to it.
Christie has written a pleasant bit of escapism and,
on that level, A Single Spy succeeds. Anyone who hopes
it will fulfill the author’s ambition to provide more than
that, however, will be disappointed.
a. Aleksi’s NKVD handler is named Grigory Petrovich Yakushev;
in real life, an Aleksandr Yakushev was an OGPU officer who
worked against Russian monarchist exiles in Paris.
v v v
Studies in Intelligence Vol 61, No. 3 (Extracts, September 2017)
A Single Spy
William Christie (Minotaur, 2017), 391 pp.
Reviewed by John Ehrman